EUROPE: ENGLAND: ARCHBISHOP VISITS NATIONAL GALLERY IN LONDON -
ASIA: PAGADIAN DIOCESE SENDS MESSANGER TO KIDNAPPED PRIEST -
AFRICA: UGANDA: AI CALLS FOR ARREST OF PRESIDENT-AUSTRALIA: BISHOPS' AUSTRALIA: STATEMENT CONDEMNS TERMINATION OF INNOCENT LIFE-
AUDIENCES VATICAN CITY, 22 OCT 2009 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in separate audiences: - Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops. - Archbishop Francesco Coccopalmerio, president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, accompanied by Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru, secretary of the same council. - Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care. - Archbishop Vincenzo Pelvi, military ordinary for Italy.AP/.../... VIS 091022 (80)
OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS VATICAN CITY, 22 OCT 2009 (VIS) - The Holy Father: - Accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Budjala, Democratic Republic of Congo, presented by Bishop Joseph Bolangi Egwanga Ediba Tasame, in accordance with canon 401 para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law. He is succeeded by Coadjutor Bishop Philibert Tembo Nlandu. - Appointed Msgr. Jean Laffitte, vice president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, as secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family, at the same time elevating him to the dignity of bishop. The bishop-elect was born in Oloron-Sainte-Marie, France in 1952 and ordained a priest in 1989. - Appointed Fr. Mario Toso S.D.B., consultor of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, as secretary of the same council, at the same time elevating him to the dignity of bishop. The bishop-elect was born in Mogliano Veneto, Italy in 1950 and ordained a priest in 1978.RE:NA/.../... VIS 091022 (160)
AMERICA
USA: SHRINE OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION CELEBRATES 5O YEARS
CNA reports that the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception will mark its 50th anniversary on Nov. 20, closing a year of pilgrimages and plenary indulgences.
The Jubilee has been celebrated for an entir
e year before the actual anniversary, in keeping with Church tradition. According to the Basilica, Pope Benedict XVI granted a plenary indulgence for the period of the Jubilee.
The Basilica had hosted Pilgrimage Saturdays on the third Saturday afternoon of each month beginning in February 2009 and ending this November. Participants are guided on “pilgrimage” to select chapels and oratories of the Basilica, joining in litanies, devotions, and songs in honor of the Virgin Mary.
An Anniversary Exhibit opened in September at the Basilica’s Memorial Hall to present photographs, artifacts and memorabilia of the Basilica’s history, including its construction. The exhibit will be on display until November.
Just as the Basilica opened its 1959 dedication with a Triduum, it will celebrate the close of its Jubilee Year with a Triduum. The three-day celebration will begin on Thursday, Nov. 19 with the Plenary Mass of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at 5 p.m. It will continue through Saturday, Nov. 21 with the final pilgrimage event and will close with the celebration of Solemn Mass on noon Sunday, Nov. 22. (SOURCE: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=17457
ENGLAND: ARCHBISHOP VISITS NATIONAL GALLERY IN LONDON
chbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster has said. He was speaking in the crypt-like darkness of the gallery's Sainsbury Wing just a few days before the opening of The Sacred Made Real, an exhibition of paintings and painted wooden sculptures from the Spanish Counter-Reformation.Standing over the Dead Christ, by Gregorio Fernàndez, he said it showed "the eternal desire of God to embrace all suffering, all human brokenness. There's no place of darkness that He will not reach."The piece, commissioned by Jesuits, is designed so that people can pray at each of Christ's wounds. The eyes are made of glass, the teeth of ivory, and the fingernails of bull horn.The Archbishop said that in one sense it was a sculpture of a dead man, killed through torture and execution. "His lips are going blue, the life is drained away, the eyes are without sight," he said. "It's something that can be seen in so many different places: mortuaries, prison cells, places where people are tortured, on battlefields."But the cushion under his head - "fit for a king" - hinted that it was a death "unlike all others". The Archbishop said: "I think when you recognise this as the body of the man on which was written 'the king of the Jews' it opens up the depths of who we are, and who God is."He said the sculpture showed "an expression of love, of love given in its entirety", adding: "I'm drawn in because it's for me."The archbishop said it also helped to distinguish between what is beautiful and what is merely pretty. "If it's beautiful it will evoke out of the viewer a response: generosity, self-giving, admiration. If it is not it will evoke a desire to possess it. This is a terrible beauty. It's the beauty of what is true."Archbishop Nichols spoke about two other sculptures, both by Pedro de Mena: St Francis Standing in Meditation and Mary Magdalene Meditating on the Crucifixion. The sculpture of St Francis, described by Xavier Bray, the curator of the exhibition, as "the masterpiece of Spanish sculpture", has never before left the sacristy of Toledo Cathedral. The Archbishop said it was a revelation. "It takes us to the very heart of who St Francis is," he said. "His face is raised to God, his eyes open, his mouth slightly open, and a posture that's both of utter surprise and also of recognition. Astonished delight to be approaching the presence of God as he was. But there's also recognition: this is fulfilment."He said the opening in St Francis's habit, suggestive of Christ's wounds and St Francis's stigmata, "invited a close identification between St Francis and Christ". The opening was also an "invitation to faith", the archbishop said, as it recalled Christ's invitation to St Thomas to put his hand in his wound. He said: "So here in this statue there's a revelation of the inner life of St Francis. The great joy of St Francis's life - a great outpouring of joy which appeals to people to this day."Archbishop Nichols said that De Mena's depiction of Mary Magdalene showed her discovering a "deeper sense of self" after Christ's death. He noted that she held a crucifix firmly in her left hand, as if to say "this is what I hold on to now". Her right hand is held to her chest. "She's looking at Christ, the expression of God's love, [thinking] 'can this be for me?' That's the invitation here," the Archbishop said. He pointed to the gap between Christ's love and experience of ourselves as "vulnerable, fragile and ashamed of what we do". The Sacred Made Real exhibition, on until January, puts 17th century Spanish sculptures alongside paintings by Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Zurbarán. (SOURCE: http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/articles/a0000673.shtmlUCAN reports that a messenger has been sent by P
agadian diocese to try and get vital medication to kidnapped Columban priest Father Michael Sinnott.Father Michael Sinnott
Vicar General Father Gilbert Hingone, who is also Church spokesman for the search and rescue effort, said police had identified an area where Father Sinnott may be being held.
The exact whereabouts of the priest, who suffers from a heart condition, remain unknown. The messenger will also try to get news of Father Sinnott's condition.
"We are trying to ascertain that Father Sinnott is there and that he is really alive," he said.
Father Hingone told UCA News that he and members of the crisis committee led by Governor Aurora Cerilles of Zamboanga del Sur province met Oct. 21 at the governor's office with a man from the area where the priest may be held.
The man would try to act as intermediary to get the medicine through to the priest.
"I prepared a jacket and medicines and we had this man hand it for us to the emissary who would deliver them to the kidnappers," the vicar general told UCA News after the meeting. "We want a picture of Father Sinnott wearing the jacket that I sent" to prove he is alive.
Father Hingone said the middle man was not part of the group holding Father Sinnott, who was snatched from the Columban Fathers' house in Pagadian City on Oct. 11. The priest declined to give details of how the contact had been initiated nor about the location of the search.
Father Gilbert Hingone
Father Sinnott, 80, underwent heart bypass surgery in 2007. His congregation and local Church officials have repeatedly stressed that their priority is to provide for the priest's health needs.
The crisis committee had sought to speak to Father Sinnott by telephone but "the emissary said kidnappers had refused to talk to us and they would not let Father Mick talk to us either."
Father Sinnott has served for most of his 42 years in the Philippines in Pagadian diocese which comprises the city and northern and eastern parts of Zamboanga del Sur.
"What happened to Father Sinnott is very painful for us and very embarrassing," Father Hingone said. This is no way to "reward" such a dedicated missioner, he added. (SOURCE:
(SOURCE: http://www.cisanewsafrica.org/story.asp?ID=4190
The Bishops said it was "extraordinary hypocrisy" that in hospitals today, one ward would make "great and appropriate efforts" to save premature babies, while "on another floor the lives of babies, perhaps older than some of the premature babies, are being terminated," according to a media release.
"Every human life deserv
es our reverence, love and respect," said Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart. "From the beginning of human history, we have not been free to kill the innocent."The People of Life and a People for Life statement says the liberalisation of abortion law in Victoria "is a symptom of a much deeper cultural problem of increasing secularisation and relativism."
The Bishops said the Abortion Law Reform Act 2008 overrides the conscientious objection of nurses and requires doctors who have a conscientious objection to abortion to refer a woman seeking abortion to another doctor who does not.
The Bishops state medical regulations are yet to be issued that would clarify the legal implications of the Act for doctors and nurses.
The 11am Mass on Sunday at St Patrick's Cathedral celebrated by Archbishop Hart will pray for mothers, babies and an end to abortion.
It will be followed by an interfaith prayer service at 12.30pm and a conference later that will also feature various pro-life speakers and the alternatives to abortion Walking with Love program.
(SOURCE: http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=17221
TODAY'S SAINT
MOTHER OF ST. JAMES THE GREAT AND ST. JOHN
Feast: October 22
Information:
Feast Day:
October 22
One of the holy women present at the Crucifixion, and who visited the tomb on the morning of the Resurrection (Mark 15:40; 16:1). In Mark 15:40, we read: "And there were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalen, and Mary the Mother of James the Less and of Joseph, and Salome." The parallel passage of Matthew reads thus: "Among whom was Mary Magdalen, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee" (Matthew 27:56). Comparison of the two gives a well-grounded probability that the Salome of the former is identical with the mother of the sons of Zebedee in the latter, who is mentioned also in Matthew 20:20 sq., in connection with the petition in favour of her sons. Beyond these references in the Gospel narrative and what may be inferred from them nothing is known of Salome, though some writers conjecture more or less plausibly that she is the sister of the Blessed Virgin mentioned in John 19:25. (SOURCE: http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/M/stmarysalome.asp
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"I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!
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I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished!
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Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division;
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for henceforth in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three;
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they will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against her mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."
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